20 Cult British Films You Need To See Before You Die

15. Nil By Mouth (1997)

Working class London based woes of an extremely dysfunctional family, the film centres around Val and Raymond who live with Val's mother Janet and grandmother Kath, in addition to Val's brother Billy. Together they must find a way to co-exist. Raymond is a violent, abusive thug who beats seven shades of crap out of Val and kicks Billy out of the house for being a drug addict. This is only the tip of the iceberg of misery in this film. Director Gary Oldman does not shy away from portraying the stark reality of a messed up family. He is blessed with a fantastic cast - especially Ray Winstone as Raymond and Kathy Burke as Val. Watching the two characters interact, you almost forget that you are watching a film and you think it is a particularly nasty fly on the wall documentary. Ray Winstone plays the combustible Raymond with total mastery - a mere twitch of an eyebrow signalling a shift of personality into crazed violence. Kathy Burke acts her socks off as the beaten and down-trodden Val. She suffers a lot in the film but she seems to have a steely will to not be defeated by her unhappy circumstances. This is as raw and harrowing as cinema gets, and major props must go to Oldman, who also wrote.